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Monday, 30 November 2015

The repaint of my concept art is almost complete. It's been taking a lot longer to complete than I first thought it would but I'm definitely happy with the progress I've made so far on it. I just need to add in the windows and doors with a few final touches and it will be done!

Here is the finished Alleyway scene. This was great to make as I've definitely learnt a lot about this process. It was a lot more intensive than I first thought it would be but it has given me a great insight into what to do with my city when I create that in Maya too.

I've been struggling in the Life drawing classes to get several features of the models correct, like the eyes, hands and feet. So! To help me with this, I've decided to do one of 'Draw With Jazza's' Tutorials a week!

Today I've followed his tutorial on how to draw eyes for comic and cartoon characters. This of course applies to real life drawings as well and has taught me how to proportion the eyes and what shape eye fits with the angle of the face.

Wednesday, 25 November 2015

I've been tweaking my little Giraffe in Flash. This time I've flung his neck forwards a bit when he hits the ground. I've also added a background although this might just be temporary at the moment as I''m not such that the pixelated effect suits Jake as much as I first thought it would.

I've also just noticed that his tail is not as animated and seems to hover in mid air when he hits the ground. Time to edit it some more!

Tuesday, 24 November 2015

I've been carrying on with the rework of my final concept art. I'm happy with this layout and I'm now using the new techniques Jordan had shown me yesterday to help rework and paint into my piece.
Work so far:

I've sorted the sky and the skyline to show the city extending back further.

Grass, hill and path have been extended and merged together a little better with hightlights.

Started the paint over of three of the buildings as the black outline around them breaks the illusions of depth.

Monday, 23 November 2015

Following on from my recent OGR feedback, I have rearranged my composition to have the outcome above. I think this is starting to feel much more like a city. I have had a chat with Jordan about what to do next with my final piece and have written a lot of notes down with next ideas and techniques to try out. I shall scan these later on and put them on the blog as reference and carry on working into the piece.

After my bouncing ball animation, I felt that it wasn't conclusive and had something slightly off about the piece. For the next stage, I manipulated the bouncing ball into the body of the giraffe and the smaller ball into his tail. I think this was a huge success as I still don't feel 100% confident when using Flash.

Sunday, 22 November 2015

I'm part way through the lighting tutorial and I realised I hadn't posted an update on the Alley Way scene for a while! The UV layout is complete. This process took slightly longer than I anticipated as moving the file backwards and forwards from uni (Windows computer at uni, Mac at home) is messing slightly with the material that I had assigned. Now I have worked out how to change this back and fix it, it is a very quick change before continuing. Now onwards onto the lighting!

This is the final concept art for my city. I chose to light the scene as if it was sunrise as I thought it would add an extra sense of depth. Iris does a similar thing of adding several tones of one fabric into a piece and then adds in an opposite to really draw attention to certain parts of the dresses.

Once my orthographs were completed, I wanted to show the difference in size for them all. If all of the buildings were on a flat piece of land, this is how they would look side by side in front view, back view and side view.

Here are the final orthographs for buildings 5 and 6 of my city. My favourite out all all of them definitely has to be building 6 and its bubble like appearance. I'm thinking of doing a 'scaled orthograph' where all the buildings are lined up side by side for each view to show the size difference between the buildings.

Wednesday, 18 November 2015

These are the orthographs for the first two buildings. I've also placed below it the final colouring and textures onto them for comparison. I think they look great so far and the scale of them is really starting to become clear. They should be straight forward to model in Maya because of their repetitive nature which will be helpful when modelling.

This is the second page of colour tests that I have done. This is quite an odd building for me to visualise in any colour other than the original green so 9 different colours were a great way to see the textures and shapes etc.

Whilst working on the orthographs for the buildings, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to test out the colours using the palette I've selected from Iris's work. I've created these 6 versions of the first building and I think all of them work really well! Just by changing the colour, it is giving them the illusion of different rock types. Initially I think I'm going to use number 3 (top right) as its more subdued and doesn't jump out at you, although I might change this later on.

To help with colouring my city, I've used the colour picker to take a range of colours and shades directly from Iris Van Herpen's work. By doing this, I feel it will help me discover a better tonal range for the rocky buildings, trees and other aspects of my city. When painting my final concept art / thumbnails, I will select certain colours out of this palette to take forward and experiment with. These will also be the colours that I will try and base the mood around for Hibernaculumis. This will include colour comps.

Tuesday, 17 November 2015

Jan Cocteau's La Belle et La Bete (1946) is what you may see as the original, darker and more perverse version of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. The fairy tail revolves around Belle (literal translation - Beauty) and her almost twisted whirlwind romance with the La Bete (the Beast). This film unlike its counterpart choses to focus its story on family and love, rather than magic and singing tea cups.

"...there is something bizarrely romantic in her holding out in this way, and in the Beast's very un-beastlike gallantry. And all combined with this strange Freudian sacrifice for her father — or perhaps it is to her father. It is formally exquisite and heartfelt and entirely absorbing: a secret fairytale for adults." (P. Bradshaw, 2014)

Belle sacrifices herself to la Bete to save her fathers life. While lost roaming the forest he stumbled upon la Bete's castle and taking a single rose which Belle had asked for, he was given a choice to pay with his life or select one of his daughters to be held prisoner for his actions. She believes it was her fault for the mess her father is in and willing goes to la Bete. It's only around this time that we start to see him through his facade. Gentle and calm rather than the cruel and feral like being we see at the start.

Fig 2 - Belle entering the castle for the first time, surround by human arms holding the candelabras.

There is clear magical presence which is often seen in la Bete's castle, with arms intertwined with the furniture and decorations. Some heads are even positioned on the fireplace! Rodger Erbert noted it, stating

"It's entrance hall is lined with candelabra held by living human arms that extend from the walls. The statues are alive, and their eyesfollow the progress of the characters..." (R. Erbert, 1999)

Magic is often hinted at through out the film but not as the whimsical magic of cartoons and fairy godmothers, the 'magic' here is more of punishment. Is this supposed to relate to the riches that he obviously controls or that the outside world is merely onlookers to the events unfolding before them? This film is not meant to be straight forward with its thinking, but to allow the audience to speculate at its every twist and turn.

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Fig 3 - La Bete standing behind Belle who is seated at the table.

Before long we see Beauty beg to return home to see her father whom she missed dearly. The beast agrees with much reluctance because if she stayed away for longer he would die of grief. (Why he could not use his magic to transport himself to her every night is questionable although It would definitely prove the attachment issues for both parties.) he gives her a parting gift of a golden key which will unlock the door to all of his treasures.

"...glittering temple of Diana, wherein the mystery of the Beast is revealed, the visual progression of the fable into a dream-world casts its unpredictable spell." (B. Crowther, 1947)

When she return back to her family, it is clear to see she has risen from rags to riches rather gracefully. Her sisters green with envy and jealousy, steal the golden key sending the two young gentlemen off to steal the riches. Unfortunately, they fail resulting in death by arrow (fired by the statue of Diana.) Belle uses the magical teleportation glove to hurry back to her love where he is transformed from a beast to a man who just happens to resemble the young gentleman whom we just saw die. She accepts his wishes to marry her before the both rise up into the sky.

Before experimenting with my building shapes in a scene, I wanted to do a test shot using an angle that I've never worked in before. Jordan pointed out that I had my tonal range back to front and shown em how to change the file to have a black and white proof setting to work in. This helped me re do the piece while keeping the colours close to what they would be in real life.

I need some more practise and experience with working in Black and White because I want to place lighter objects at the front and the darker in the back which is throwing the tone and mood of my pieces off completely.

Monday, 16 November 2015

Sorry for the delay in posting the final OGR 1. Here it is, complete with travelog (has been uploaded before).
*EDIT*
I thought I'd previously managed to post a basic version of this but apparently due to internet problems, it never uploaded. My apologies! I shall have to keep a closer eye on what posts and what does not!

When you first stumble across Hibernaculumis it feels almost by chance. You probably saw the shapes off in the distance but didn't think anything more of it. When you travel closer across the land and see the shapes of the rocks more clearly, is assumably when you realised that there is more than meets the eye with this place.

Hibernaculumis is often celebrated for its decorative landscape and the buildings that seem so other worldly. Not too far back into history, the landscape in which this city was built, it could have been described as barren and lacking in life. The land was once full of rocks that seemly appeared from nowhere. Cliffs over look the city from most angles but these formations look like they were always detached and lonely. Over the years the acidic winds and stormy atmosphere reshaped the land dramatically. No longer looking so jagged and rough, they began to show almost intricately built shapes. The houses and buildings that you see before you were not sculpted by man but by the weather over hundreds of years.

The people who chose to dwell in this city were nomads not too long ago either before they stumbled across this city. They saw the shapes in the rock formations that Mother Nature had carved so beautifully for them and began to carve deeper themselves. Only this time they chiselled away to create houses and buildings inside these formations. They took from the rock, never adding; choosing to admire the work of nature, treating it like a work of art. Only sculpting for their own needs when they deemed necessary. First came the housing. Then the hospitals and shops and businesses when their city became more established.

The folk who live here chose the formation for the building. The more intricate the design on the outside, the more significant the building. This does not always reflect the wealth or social status of those within. They love this landscape for its architecture and will often have a choice of where to place their house or business.

Each building is unique. Each seems to be formed from a different type of rock. The wind and weather affected them in such dramatic ways. When the travellers first appeared, not all of the formations were symmetrical. This is the only time they change the outside, to make it more aesthetically appeasing to the eye. The city is always growing, always under construction but the religion within the Hibernaculumis has never changed for as long as memory can recall.

There are no gods or goddesses as such for these people, they worship nature itself. In this modern age, the closest religion we can compare it too is Wicca. They thank nature for its gifts and constant protection, the weather, produce and health. Their medicines may seem prehistoric but they claim to draw from the 'magick' within the herbs and plants that they chose. All grown from the surrounding land, these people believe that nature is nurturing those who live there.

Although this city may seem newer than most, carving rock is a pain staking process that takes time and care. No one can pin point when this city was first established but they all agree that the founders of Hibernaculumis stumbled across this place by the blessing of nature. No real fact remains surrounding this subject, for it is now used as a bed time story for the children.

Food is not much of an issue for this city. They are descended from foragers. Choosing to live on what the earth provides for them. They grow plants, herbs and berries for themselves all year round and only eat meat when the wildlife roams nearby. The meat from the hunts are often shared with the young, elderly and the sick before others can claim some for themselves. They also keep a close eye on the populations of animals around them, believing that mother nature occasionally allows a boom for the city folk to feed upon before reducing them back to a safe number. The plants they grow are not only in the grounds surrounding the buildings. The buildings themselves have many ledges on. When adding a thin layer of soil to these, the plants soon take root, fixing themselves to the rock beneath. They believe that by letting the plant life do this, it connects these rocky formations to the earth, bringing them closer to nature. Most homes only grow berries whereas the shops, cafes and restaurants grow all sorts of herbs, spices and vegetables. How they grow so well is a mystery none the less but it works well for these humble people.

The people here don't just live on the ground. With the ever growing city expanding day by day, the workers build some temporary buildings in the trees surrounding the new project. They act as shelter from the wind and rain, where some chose to spend the night rather than venturing home in the darkened streets; and some even stay here until the project is done, moving in after the work is complete. These are not your typical tree houses, but more of a community of workers. Often built up in clumps of 6 or more, they become their own family. Once construction is complete, they move their mini community to the next build location.

All of the streets and buildings are lit with candles. Made by the women of Hibernaculumis while nurturing their babies; they sell them back to the city for a small price, to help light up the extravagant buildings by night and provide beautiful decoration by day.

Hibernaculumis is a truly breath taking place. They say once you've been there and have been so lucky to watch the sunrise over tops of the buildings, it will change your view on the world today, leaving you breathless and open to Mother Nature herself. Only time will tell if you will miss the city as much as I will but it is sure to stick in your memories for a long, long time.

Friday, 13 November 2015

Realised I hadn't posted this. It's my attempt at a bouncing ball. My timings are slightly off as I know that the first decent should be a lot quicker. I might retry this soon just to improve on timings and apply the squash and stretch animation principle.

Thursday, 12 November 2015

This is the latest 5 buildings I have created using the green abstract pieces. The way they are layering together is making some pretty interesting shapes and the symmetry on them is also very textured. Next step - Maya!

Due to internet problems I'm finding it hard to post images at the moment for some strange reason but here is 6 more 'buildings' that I've created by layering some of the abstract forms I created in Photoshop. I'm really starting to like the way that these cream pieces are looking. The extra lines within each section was a worry to start with but they seem to be adding depth and texture to the buildings. These are the ones that I think look most like Iris's 'Radiation Invasion' collection, even more so than the previous green versions I uploaded.

Wednesday, 11 November 2015

I have begun creating structures and forms from the abstract thumbnails I have created over the last few days. Iris's work is often repeated in shape and pattern so I have begun to copy elements together, layering, rotating and merging shapes. These are my first 8 trials. They went a lot better than I thought they would although using thumbnails with the outline already embedded within the piece is throwing up some interesting pieces. They are starting to look like some of Iris's dresses from her 'Radiation Invasion' collection.

Tuesday, 10 November 2015

Iris Van Herpen is known for collaborating with other artists, photographers and architects. One name kept appearing during my research into her, Philip Beesley.

I felt that I should look into him and his work, to see if I could further understand Iris and possibly even where she gets her ideas and inspiration from.

It seems that for an architect, he creates very organic structures which coincides with the way Iris works, with her naturalistic shapes and forms, its easy to see that they are both inspired by various aspects of nature.

Sunday, 8 November 2015

These are some more shape experimentations, this time using silhouettes from previous work with Iris Van Herpen's pieces. I'm starting to get some really interesting shapes forming, especially when it has an outline that is manipulated too.